July Century Ride

century ride, cycling, UMCA Year Rounder | UltraRob | Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 10:37 pm

Since the month is nearly over and I hadn’t done a century ride yet this month for the UMCA Year Rounder, I headed out yesterday to get a long ride in. Since I was ready about the time the Acacia Ride comes by my house, I decided I’d try riding with them at least up to the Air Force Academy. I was still tying the our new dog up when I head the whirl of bikes. I rushed to grab my stuff and start riding. By then they were out of sight. I knew my only change of riding with the group was if the timing of light at Garden of the Gods Road was just right. Sure enough as I got close I could see the group waiting. The light turned green just before I got there and I was able to catch onto the back of the group.

I was debating about going into the Air Force Academy and riding up to the bomber at least with other OTB riders. When we cut through the neighborhood behind the retail on Academy, I was having trouble staying on the back of the pack. I decided my best option was to go ride by myself.

I headed out across the south edge of the Black Forest. Even though it was before noon, there was an ugly thunderstorm to the south near Falcon. I headed north to Elbert and was a bit concerned about the weather. I enjoyed partly cloudy skies and hoped that I wouldn’t get caught in lightning later in the ride. Even after the hot weather the last couple weeks, it’s still green and looked like there’s been a lot of hay making.

I took a break at the convenience store in Elbert and then headed back south. Once I got back near the Palmer Divide, I could see there were still storms to the south. Once I got to the top of the hill, it looked good to the west and the thunderstorms appeared to be south of my planned route back on US 24. Although there were a few wet spots near Falcon, the sun was shinning.

From my house out to Elbert and back is just over 80 miles. I generally add some extra miles out on the plains but I wanted to get back close to home since clouds were building again to the west. I rode through Manitou and did a loop around my neighborhood to bring my ride to 100.4 miles. I did 3570 feet of climbing. My ride time was 6:42 for an average speed of 15.0 mph.